Schubert, Layla A. Olin, 1975-
2010-12-21T00:30:44Z
2010-12-21T00:30:44Z
2010-06
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/10909
x, 208 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
The scattered instances depicting material literature in Anglo-Saxon poetry should be regarded as a group. This phenomenon occurs in Beowulf, The Dream of the Rood, and The Husband's Message. Comparative examples of material literature can be found on the Ruthwell Cross and the Franks Casket. This study examines material literature in these three poems, comparing their depictions of material literature to actual examples.
Poems depicting material literature bring the relationship between man and object into dramatic play, using the object's point of view to bear witness to the truth of distant or intensely personal events. Material literature is depicted in a love poem, The Husband's Message, when a prosopopoeic runestick vouches for the sincerity of its master, in the heroic epic Beowulf when an ancient, inscribed sword is the impetus to give an account of the biblical flood, and is also implied in the devotional poem The Dream of the Rood, as two crosses both pre-and-post dating the poem bear texts similar to portions of the poem.
The study concludes by examining the relationship between material anxiety and the character of Weland in Beowulf, Deor, Alfred's Consolation of Philosophy, and Waldere A & B. Concern with materiality in Anglo-Saxon poetry manifests in myriad ways: prosopopoeic riddles, both heroic and devotional passages directly assailing the value of the material, personification of objects, and in depictions of material literature. This concern manifests as a material anxiety. Weland tames the material and twists and shapes it, re-affirming the supremacy of mankind in a material world.
Committee in charge: Martha Bayless, Chairperson, English;
James Earl, Member, English;
Daniel Wojcik, Member, English;
Aletta Biersack, Outside Member, Anthropology
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of English, Ph. D., 2010;
Material literature
Anglo-Saxon poetry
Poetry
Beowulf
Dream of the rood
Husband's message
Weland the Smith
Medieval literature
Cultural anthropology
Folklore
British literature -- History and criticism
English poetry -- Old English, ca. 450-1100 -- History and criticism
Material culture
Irish literature -- History and criticism
Material literature in Anglo-Saxon poetry
Thesis

Luttrell, Eric G.
2012-03-28T00:07:43Z
2012-03-28T00:07:43Z
2011-09
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/12089
xi, 266 p.
This dissertation employs recent developments in the cognitive sciences to explicate competing social and religious undercurrents in Beowulf. An enduring scholarly debate has attributed the poem's origins to, variously, Christian or polytheistic worldviews. Rather than approaching the subject with inherited terms which originated in Judeo-Christian assumptions of religious identity, we may distinguish two incongruous ways of conceiving of agency, both human and divine, underlying the conventional designations of pagan and Christian. One of these, the poly-agent schema, requires a complex understanding of the motivations and limitations of all sentient individuals as causal agents with their own internal mental complexities. The other, the omni-agent schema, centralizes original agency in the figure of an omnipotent and omnipresent God and simplifies explanations of social interactions. In this concept, any individual's potential for intentional agency is limited to subordination or resistance to the will of God. The omni-agent schema relies on social categorization to understand behavior of others, whereas the poly-agent schema tracks individual minds, their intentions, and potential actions.
Whereas medieval Christian narratives, such as Bede's Life of St. Cuthbert and Augustine's Confessions, depend on the omni-agent schema, Beowulf relies more heavily on the poly-agent schema, which it shares with Classical and Norse myths, epics, and sagas. While this does not prove that the poem originated before the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, it suggests that the poem was able to preserve an older social schema which would have been discouraged in post-conversion cultures were it not for a number of passages in the poem which affirmed conventional Christian theology. These theological asides describe an omni-agent schema in abstract terms, though they accord poorly with the representations of character thought and action within the poem. This minimal affirmation of a newer model of social interaction may have enabled the poem's preservation on parchment in an age characterized by the condemnation, and often violent suppression, of non-Christian beliefs. These affirmations do not, however, tell the whole story.
Committee in charge: James W. Earl, Chairperson;
Louise Westling, Member;
Lisa Freinkel, Member;
Mark Johnson, Outside Member
en_US
University of Oregon
University of Oregon theses, Dept. of English, Ph. D., 2011;
rights_reserved
Medieval literature
British and Irish literature
Comparative
Philosophy, religion and theology
Language, literature and linguistics
Pagan
Beowulf
Cognition
Monotheism
Polytheism
Religion
Persistent Mythologies: A Cognitive Approach to Beowulf and the Pagan Question
Cognitive Approach to Beowulf and the Pagan Question
Thesis